In a previous post I explained my system setup with Hyper-V running 2 images with TFS2008 and TFS2010. Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite was also installed on the main operating system to be able to connect to TFS2008 and TFS2010 at the same time. Connecting to TFS2010 is a bit awkward becaused you need to supply the full url with the name of the tfs instance while normally you must only supply the TFS server name for connecting to TFS2008.

As explained in my previous post, I’m running Hyper-V on my laptop with a virtual image for Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 1. Each time I shut down my main operating system and restart it the next day to connect back to my TFS2010 image, I get the same error when starting Visual Studio 2010 : error TF205020.

Afterwards when I wanted to connect to TFS via Team Explorer I was faced with error TF31001 …

Other MVP Team System colleagues had similar errors and they also had a TFS2010 installation on a solid state hard disk (SSD). Resetting IIS (iisreset) did the magic and brought all TFS services back online like nothing happened. For now I have a quick workaround, but I’m curious what’s causing this and how it can be resolved. Hoping to bring you more news soon!

I have setup a dual boot with Windows 7 (really nice and fast install experience!) and Windows Server 2008. In the Windows Server 2008 operating system, Hyper-V is used to manage different virtual machines. For the moment I’ve created already two virtual machines :

Team Foundation Server 2008 (workgroup edition)

Team Foundation Server 2010 (Beta 1)

Instead of using a prepared TFS2008 virtual machine, I’ve decided to install and configure Team Foundation Server 2008 from scratch because I wanted to experience the difference(s) later with the installation procedure of Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 1. I have installed TFS2008 a few times in the past but it stays a pretty cautious task. The one and only rule is to stick to the latest version of the TFS2008 installation guide. This is a list of the software that got installed already on the TFS2008 “All-Up” virtual image (app + data tier) :

It’s clear from the start that the TFS Team put a lot of attention to the installation process. Installation is now separated from the actual configuration of the Team Foundation Server. In the first phase the software is copied to the server and some basic registration takes place. After this you get the option to configure TFS in a new configuration wizard where you can choose between a default and a custom configuration. The benefit of this new separated installation process is that the configuration phase can be completed one piece at a time without ever rolling back the first phase. I didn’t take screenshots during the installation process, but you can find most of the screenshots in this blogpost of Brian Harry. For sure, it’s a big improvement and I feel more in control during the setup.

More TFS2010 news to come!

Other interesting impressions :

Solid State rocks!

The Windows 7 experience is great as well! No big issues so far … it feels good! Also the ability to mount .vhd files comes in handy.

My laptop has also a built-in eSATA port and I’m still looking for an external hard drive with an eSATA interface for extra storage. Any suggestions? What about storing virtual images on external drives? What type of external drives should I look for?